12 Things You Didn't Know About Pixar

These days, the word “Pixar” is synonymous with quality animation, but have you ever stopped to wonder what the word actually means, or what it refers to?

Way back when Steve Jobs first acquired the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, a conversation between co-founders Alvy Ray Smith and Loren Carpenter led to the creation of the name. Alvy put forth the name “Pixer”, which he believed sounded like a fake Spanish verb meaning “to make pictures”.

Loren, on the other hand, thought “Radar” would be a good title, as it sounded like something from the future, and represented their ground-breaking technological goals. In the end, the two combined their names, Pixer and Radar, forming Pixar.